US Senate passes Mexico-Canada trade deal in major victory for Trump

Deal has been criticised by environmental groups, saying it does not go far enough to fight back against climate change

A street vendor sells ice cream to cargo trucks drivers lining up to cross to the United States at Otay commercial crossing port in Tijuana, Baja California state, on June 6, 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

The US Senate has passed Donald Trump's revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), handing the president a major victory less than a year before the 2020 election.

The new deal — the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA — was passed by a vote of 89-10 in the Senate. The president is expected to sign the legislation into law this week.

The USMCA deal was passed just one hour before House impeachment managers — the seven-member prosecution team in the president's impeachment trial — arrived on the floor of the Senate, where they formally began the Senate trial by reading the articles of impeachment against the president.

Once signed by Mr Trump, the USMCA will mark one of the most prominent legislative victories of his presidency so far, marking a rare moment of bipartisan consensus in a Congress that has been bitterly divided for years.

It also comes one day after the administration announced it had agreed "phase one" of a trade deal with China, marking an attempted start to ease the trade war between the economic powerhouses.

The new deal hopes to update trade rules within the continent to address 21st century technologies and concerns, nearly three decades after its predecessor Nafta was signed into law.

Among the specifics includes a requirement that at least 40 per cent of auto parts for cars in the continent are produced in factories where workers make at least $16 an hour. It also upgrades digital trade and copyright rules.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, praised the deal just before its passage, claiming that it will benefit all corners of America's economy.

"Farmers. Growers. Cattlemen. Manufacturers. Small businesses. Big Businesses," Mr McConnell said. "This is a major step for our whole country."

The deal was originally opposed by many Democrats, even as Republicans rallied behind the issue because of its expanded protections for American industry and farming. But, many Democrats ultimately crossed over after negotiations expanded labour standards like the requirement that Mexican factories be open for inspection, and after loopholes were closed that made prosecution for labour violations more difficult.

"This new trade deal is a modest improvement," said Elizabeth Warren, a leading 2020 presidential candidate, during a debate in Iowa on Tuesday. "It will give some relief to our farmers. It will give some relief to our workers. I belive we accept that relief, we try to help the people who need help, and we get up the next day and fight for a better trade deal."

But the deal has been met with criticism, notably from environmental groups and allies like Bernie Sanders, another presidential candidate.

"I will not vote for a trade agreement that does not incorporate very, very strong principles to significantly lower fossil fuel emissions in the world," Mr Sanders said during that same debate.

Some unions have also opposed the deal, claiming that it does not protect workers enough and that it does not address some food safety and labelling concerns. "Consumers have a right to know where their food is from, whether it's safe, and if it's produced by American workers," Marc Perrone, the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said in a statement.

"Without strong country-of-origin labelling, consumers will be kept in the dark and America's food workers will continue to face unfair competition from foreign companies not playing by the same rules."

For Mr Trump, the deal marks a major legislative victory just 10 months before his re-election, and makes good on his promise to repeal Nafta, which he has referred to as the worst deal ever made.

The president can now point to that victory alongside his work on taxes and the American courts, to argue that he has been a productive president in spite of the strong opposition to him in Washington on a personal and political level.